1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head chip unit and a method of producing the same for performing printing by discharging ink, an inkjet head including the head chip unit, and an inkjet printer including the inkjet head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as means for recording a character, an image, and the like on a medium such as paper, there has been used an inkjet printer for performing printing by discharging ink. The inkjet printer includes an inkjet head for discharging ink and a carriage for allowing the inkjet head to scan in a direction substantially orthogonal to a medium transport direction. The inkjet head includes a head chip including a plurality of channels each having an electrode formed on a wall surface thereof. A voltage is applied to each electrode from a wiring board connected to the head chip, to thereby change a volume of each of the channels to which ink is supplied. As a result, the ink is discharged from each of the channels through nozzles, thereby making it possible to perform printing.
In this case, printing in a plurality of colors can be performed in such a manner that a plurality of inkjet heads corresponding to the kinds of ink are mounted to discharge a plurality of colors of ink. However, there are problems in that the number of inkjet heads to be mounted is increased, a printer including the inkjet heads is increased in size, and costs thereof are increased. In addition, it is necessary to perform positioning of each of the inkjet heads, which makes the carriage having the inkjet heads mounted thereto complicated. For this reason, in recent years, there has been proposed a technology of printing which can be performed using a plurality of kinds of ink with a single inkjet head while achieving both miniaturization and printing in a plurality of colors. Specifically, there is proposed an inkjet head including: a base plate in which channels are formed; a head chip unit in which a plurality of head chips, each of which is formed of a cover plate disposed on the base plate, are laminated; and a wiring board connected to the cover plate of each of the head chips (for example, see JP 10-146974 A). In addition, there is proposed an inkjet head including: a head chip unit having two rows of channels which are formed on both surfaces of a single head chip; and a wiring board connected to the both surfaces (for example, see JP 2001-315353 A).
However, in the head chip unit mounted to the inkjet head as described in JP 10-146974 A, the channels arranged in a plurality of rows are disclosed, but means for supplying ink to each of the channels is not disclosed. Accordingly, a plurality of kinds of ink cannot be discharged from the channels in each row. Further, in the head chip unit mounted to the inkjet head as described in JP2001-315353 A, the channels in each row communicate with different ink chambers, thereby enabling discharge of different kinds of ink, but at most two kinds of ink can be discharged in the structure. For this reason, both of the head chip units have not achieved a technique of discharging a plurality of kinds of ink while achieving miniaturization.